Page 46 of Holy Sinner

There’s a tap on the window before it opens and the cool night air rushes into the bedroom. I stare at the window that I didn’t realize was there, rise from my bed and go straight for it. There’s someone there. Or, there was someone there.

Why is someone here?

I push the window open wider and lean out to look for the person who tapped at the window. There was someone at the window, I know it. I saw their silhouette before they vanished from sight. Behind me, Rafe and Grant sleep peacefully. They’re beautiful, tangled together with a spot between them meant just for me. I should go back to bed, climb back in the sheets with them and ignore whatever this is. I can tell them about it in the morning and they’ll handle it just like they always do, but I don’t move. I stay where I am and keep searching for the person that tapped at the window.

I'm about to give up when I see them at the tree line.

It’s a woman.

She’s wearing a pale white gown with billowing sleeves that catch in the wind. She’s stopped with her back to me and I watch while she raises an arm and points to the sky. The sleeve blows in the wind, the fabric spilling down her arm and moving until it makes me think it’s alive. Fear sparks in my belly and I almost give into my urge to get back in bed and pretend none of this happened but she drops her arm and vanishes into the trees.

I don’t think, I move, silently slipping out of the window and taking off after her as fast I can. It’s stupid to follow her and I know it, but I can’t stop myself. No matter how hard I try to dig my feet in to stop, they carry me forward. I’m barefoot, the ground beneath my feet damp and the scent of loamy earth rises up to me when I finally reach the trees.

It’s darker here, with only a faint glow of moonlight able to break through the trees to guide me. I don’t see the woman, at least not at first. I keep running and the nightgown I’m wearing catches on limbs and rocks, the fabric tears when it tries to pull me back but I keep moving forward and that's when I see her.

She’s in a clearing, her head bent and looking down at something.

“Hello?” I call out, because there’s no one else out here but us. No one from the cabins will hear me so I clear my throat and try again.

“What were you doing at my window? I saw you.”

I keep walking, twigs and dried leaves crunch beneath my bare feet the whole way and finally I’m only a foot away from her and still she doesn’t answer. I watch for another second and then fury rises up in my belly.

Who is this woman? Why was she at my window?

“I’m not afraid of you.”

I’m so tired of being afraid. I thought it was over when I agreed to be Grant and Rafe’s, but it’s back again. The past is rushing in like water through my fingers and there’s no stopping it.

“I said, I’m not afraid of you.”

I reach out and grab her shoulder, I spin her around and she screams. The sound is like nails on a chalkboard and I fall back from her. I’m not expecting the sound because it’s not human. It sounds like a hundred voices twisted together all screaming and rising as one, and when I look at her face there’s nothing there. Just a shadow where her face should be and when she reaches for me it’s me that screams and runs.

Chapter Twenty-Three

GRANT

When I wake up something’s wrong. My four o’clock alarm is beeping softly like normal and I can hear the heavy sound of Rafe’s breathing but there’s something off. I frown and reach for Kit but my fingers hit nothing but tangled sheets. I take a second and listen carefully to the cabin and all its creaks and groans. Outside, the wind blows and I hear the shifting of the cabin, but that’s it.

I hit the alarm and it falls silent. I strain my ears for the sound of anything but there’s nothing. Houses have a sound when they’re empty, when there’s no other person there but you and that’s what I hear now.

Kit isn’t in the bathroom or getting a glass of water. She’s gone.

“Fuck,” I whisper and shove Rafe. “Wake up. Now!”

I vault out of bed and nearly trip over my own feet while I yank on a shirt and take off for the front door.

“What is it?”

I hear Rafe behind me and he’s not missing a beat, not even if I just woke him up from a dead sleep. He’s just a step behind while I pull on shoes and throw the door open.

“Kit’s gone.”

Rafe swears and fumbles with his shoes before we’re both outside and sprinting down the trail to the lodge. “Did you see her?” he asks.

“No, woke up and she was gone.”

We’re both silent as we run up to the lodge and when we get there, we see it ablaze with lights. Out in front of the lodge the firepit is burning bright with a fire that looks far too big for it. Everyone is awake and the space has the heavy feel of a party that was interrupted unexpectedly. There’s a couple of sound guys that I know smoking a cigarette out on the wrap-around porch and another girl quietly crying while someone rubs her shoulders by the rocking chairs a few feet away.

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